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A short note for navigating this section - scroll below for the most recent posts, and then for more, click on the Blog Archive box, where you can view all of my posts, going back to the beginning in March 2005.
Today I’m off to Talkdesk’s analyst event - it’s been a few years since the last one, so there’s a lot of catching up to do. Am keen to get the latest updates and roadmap, and will post on LinkedIn as time allows during the event - hashtag is #TalkdeskAnalystSummit. Never been to Charleston - that will be a treat, so it should be a pretty good next few days.
Last week was definitely a bucket-list trip, courtesy of NICE, to attend their Analyst Summit in Zambia. That’s as exotic as it gets in my world, and am still buzzing from the experience - not just the content, but being surrounded by nature that urbanites hardly ever see. Every day was a new adventure, and whatever I can share now is just a fraction of the whole thing.
I’ll keep this short, and here I’m just sharing two sets of my photos - from the event itself, and from what I would call the Zambia experience - and the rest I’ll leave to your imagination (or if we’re connected on Facebook, I’ll be sharing lots more there).
Complementing that is my review of the event, which I’ve distilled into three themes - windmills, profitability and termites. A bit strange, I know, but it all hangs together, and you can read it here on No Jitter.
As always, comments and sharing are welcome, and I’ll likely have a small coda coming in the November newsletter next week.
First, some photos from the event:
CEO Barak Eilam, and AR leader and Head of Global Corporate Comms, Chris Irwin-Dudek
Fantastic opening with a children’s choir to sing the Zambian national anthem, with that week being their 60th Independence Day - pretty special. Next - one of several very creative visuals to showcase various success metrics, weaving in images from our various Analyst Summit locales - this one showing their revenue stat of $2.78 billion paired with last year’s Machu Picchu visit.
Gotta show a few regular slides - Hyper Platform - this is their next-level vision for how AI is helping enterprises get better outcomes, and for software vendors to evolve to meet those needs. Next - visual for 4 stages of NICE’s evolution that brings them to this vision.
Elizabeth Tobey and Neeraj Verma getting into the details.
Exec Q&A with Barry Cooper, Einat Weiss and Barak Eilam; and a farewell toast moment marking the fast-approaching end to Barak’s tenure as CEO.
Next - a few photos to give you a flavor for the Zambia experience - wow, huh?
NICE doesn’t do anything in half-measures. If you follow me, you’ll know that they keep raising the bar each year, and clearly, they value what analysts bring to the table. Being a public company, they're pretty transparent about things, and if they choose to take us to an exotic location - not just to share their roadmap, but to nurture important relationships - so be it. With that backdrop, they’re taking us to….
Zambia. You heard right - Zambia. I’ll leave it to your imagination and Google searches to figure out what that might look like, and am sure it will be all of that and then some. As always, I’ll share updates and photos as time allows, and a whole lot more once back. Time to pack now…
It’s a new month - the latest editions of both my newsletter and podcast are out now - JAA’s Communications and Collaboration Review, and my Watch This Space podcast, now in its 7th season.
If you’re not a subscriber, signing up to my newsletter is easy - JAA’s Communications and Collaboration Review - the signup page is here.
For my Watch This Space podcast, you can subscribe on all the major platforms, or listen to any episode directly here on my website, or here on the dedicated WTS website.
October starts the busy season for industry events, so Chris and I covered where our travels have been - and will be - taking us. Lots to discuss, but we also covered the usual gamut of interesting things like why 8-Track was a superior technology in its day, why mandating return-to-office is risky business, and reviewing our latest updates for the podcast. Hope you check it out, and subscribe to my newsletter.
You know it’s going to be a fun podcast when I get to quote one of my favorite lines from Seinfeld - “It’s not a lie… if you believe it.” As Homer would say, it’s funny because it’s true. If that’s your vibe, then I think you’ll really enjoy this podcast - my first guest spot on Glenn Goldberg’s Parallel Universe podcast.
We could go on all day long about tech, sports, music and all kinds of other things. Maybe we’ll go further on those threads next time, but right now, you should just check it out. Here’s the link for viewing it on Telecom Reseller, inclulding the transcript, or you can watch it here on YouTube.
Earlier this week, I attended my first Verint customer/partner event in Orlando. I’ve been to the last two analyst-only events, but Engage is where you get to meet and hear from customers and partners. Much bigger-picture, and nothing beats hearing success stories directly from customers.
Am not able to get a full writeup done while in between travel to various events, but the main takeaway to share is that when done right, chatbots can be effective, and Verint is front of the line for showcasing real benefits and financial impact. Every vendor in the contact center space has its own way of spelling success, and Verint’s approach is pretty simple - get tasks done faster with chatbots, and your agents can deal with more customers and do so more effectively. Time is money, and the ROI can be impressive, especially at scale.
What I’ve come to learn and like about Verint is their focused approach on using chatbots to help contact centers address real, long-standing problems. Yes, the bots are AI-driven, but this isn’t about selling an AI solution. It’s about identifying problems and outcomes, and attacking each one in a manageable way - with CX Automation being their go-to-market branding.
Rather than pushing a bunch of chatbots out there to streamline operations and make CX more seamless in a general way, Verint takes a bottom-up approach. They have dozens of chatbots ready to go, supported by their Da Vinci AI Data Hub. The key here is being an open platform, meaning that it can integrate with all CCaaS platforms. Verint is not competing to displace Genesys, Avaya, Five9, etc. Instead, they bring best-in-class chatbots that enhance these platforms.
The other key thing about being bottom-up, is that each chatbot is purpose-built to address a specific task. This allows customers to take a very targeted approach, and optimize the mix of chatbots for where they can bring the most value. Prime chatbot examples include Wrap Up, Coaching, Knowledge Automation, Smart Transfer, Copilot, and TimeFlex (WFM).
Each does one thing very well, and when deploying a suite of these, the incremental gains from automation and time savings add up quickly, translating into a fast ROI. It’s a great approach for contact centers who are taking a cautious approach with AI, along with being skeptical of chatbots - fair enough, but that reflects experiences with earlier generation chatbots, not what they can do today.
One more takeaway that may not be that evident - based on what vendors are selling, it’s easy to think that all contact centers are cloud-based, or well on their way. The reality, of course, is much different, with premises-based deployment still being the norm - in whole or in part. A key message to share is that contact centers do not need to be cloud-based to benefit from what Verint is offering. Their chatbots can work just fine with legacy deployments - what Verint does is based in their cloud, so any contact center can deploy this.
That’s the wrap for now, but more is coming in other forums, so stay tuned.
I’ll leave you with some of my photos, along with links to some LinkedIn posts during the events. If you follow me on LinkedIn, you probably didn’t see these, as I had a login glitch, and these were not posted to my main LinkedIn account. Subsequent posts are there, though, so I won’t bother with those links here. Feel free to give these a look, as there is some additional in-the-moment commentary not included here.
LinkedIn posts from Day 1 - here, here and here.
Almost forgot - bonus link - I was interviewed by Verint as part of their Blue Lounge series during the event. It’s just four minutes, where I’m talking about the role of AI in the contact center and how it’s being used to improve CX. I hope you check it out - here’s the link.
Below, CEO Dan Bodner - first in analyst-only session, then main stage.
Jaime Merrit during analyst session, Dave Singer on main stage talking about TimeFlex bots.
Kelly Koelliker leading a customer session, Heather Richards talking about Knowledge Automation bots, Kelly again with celebrity speaker Kal Penn.
Blair Pleasant leading breakout session with Daniel Ziv and Heather Richards, and fun time at Universal Studios at the karaoke bar!
Screenshots from my Blue Lounge interview about AI and CX.
Got another white paper to share - this one is for NICE, and the topic is about self-service. More specifically, with legacy forms of this being so limited, the focus is about digital self-service, and how these new capabilities can play a bigger role in making CX - customer experience - better.
As the title says - “it has to be better” - and to find out why, I hope you check it out for yourself. Here’s the link, and it just takes a moment to register first.
Am off to Orlando on Sunday for Verint’s Engage event in Orlando, FL. This is their customer/partner event, so it’s quite a bit larger than the analyst-only event they host for us at a different time of the year.
This will be my first time for their Engage event - not to be confused with other vendors and their Engage events - but the agenda is pretty full, and I’ll be sharing updates on LinkedIn, and will post takeaway thoughts soon after.
It’s time for the 2024 edition of the Talkdesk Innovators Award. I’m back as a judge, and our group will be evaluating entries after the cutoff date of September 30, with winners announced on October 30. There are 11 categories, so lots to choose from if you’re thinking about entering. Details are here, and good luck if you submit an entry!
I have another EM360-related update to share. They produce a few different podcast series, each focused on a particular technology theme. I was just a guest for their Tech Transformed podcast, and as the name implies, it’s about technologies having a transformational impact on enterprises.
On that note, there’s nothing bigger than AI, and for this espisode, the focus was on the contact center, which arguably is the most attractive use case for AI inside a business. I was interviewed by Paula Rios Maya, and thought the conversation went well. Hope you’ll agree, but you’ll have to hear it for yourself - here’s the link - would love to get your thoughts.
The latest editions of both my newsletter and podcast are out now - JAA’s Communications and Collaboration Review, and my Watch This Space podcast, now in its 7th season.
If you’re not a subscriber, signing up to my newsletter is easy - JAA’s Communications and Collaboration Review - the signup page is here.
For my Watch This Space podcast, you can subscribe on all the major platforms, or listen to any episode directly here on my website, or here on the dedicated WTS website.
This month, Chris and I reviewed how streaming has really come into its own with the Olympics, and similarly how event platforms are finding broader use cases, both in the public and private sectors. I also provided a recap of the NCEC Technologies Conference that I spoke at last month, around how conversational AI is helping utilities improve customer service.
Was a light month for writing, and just about everything else, but will hit the ground running after Labor Day - things are set to ramp up again then, and will be as busy as ever. Just two posts to share, and I hope you give them both a read!
RingCX AI: Blending Intelligent Automation with Personalized Support, Aug. 29, RingCentral blog
How AI Helps Address Core Challenges for Utilities, Aug. 21, No Jitter
I’ve been meaning to share some photos from last week’s NCEC conference in Wilmington, NC. This was my first visit to that part of the US, and really liked it - next time I’ll go back for fun.
The back story about the rural utility market was covered in this earlier post, and for this post, I’m mainly just sharing some photos for the vibe of the event. More analysis and takeaways can be found in my latest No Jitter post - here - and I’ll be talking about it as part of our next Watch This Space podcast episode, which will publish just after Labor Day.
For more background, here are my takeaways and photos from last year’s conference.
A follow-on writeup is also in the works, focusing on two pressing security issues for utilities - both cyber and physical. The conference had very interesting sessions on each topic - stay tuned.
In short, this is the world of utility co-ops, which basically serves the non-urban population, and just like everyone else, they’re struggling to modernize and adopt new technologies, especially AI.
Customer service is an important vector for this, and I presented on the role of AI for making CX better. Later in my session, I was joined by Hardy Myers from Cognigy to talk about real-world examples where their AI technologies are being used now to improve CX.
This is a very interesting vertical that I’ve been involved with for over 15 years, and I find that many of their challenges are similar to what we experience in the communications technology space.
Below - opening panel session with industry execs talking about making the grid more resilient and reliable; view from the show floor
Casey Werth from IBM talking about the role of AI for modernizing utilities; signage for my breakout session with Cognigy on Conversational AI in the contact center; from the show floor - I believe this is a current transformer - utilities are very hardware-intensive, just like telcos used to be
Two fascinating keynote sessions and speakers. First, Jesse Tuttle - “Hackah Jak” - talking about the dark side of hacking and cybersec - yeow. Second is two speakers from CACI - Lance Manthey and Chuck Jackson. Both are ex-Marines, providing a very sobering, military perspective on how vulnerable utility infrastructure is to attacks, along with how they conduct threat assessments. More on both of these sessions later.
My breakout session on Conversational AI and CX for utilities (photo: Josh Conner, NCEC), and a selfie with Jesse Tuttle and his off-the-charts sharp daughter/protege, Reese.
Around this time last year, I spoke at this conference on a couple of sessions about the growing role of AI, with a particular focus on the utility sector. In some ways, utilities are leading adopters of tech, but in others, they lag, so I was there to bring them up to speed on AI. The audience was rural coooperatives, who provide power throughout much of North Carolina, and their organizing body is the NCEC - North Carolina Electrical Cooperatives.
Well, they’ve asked me back for their 2024 conference, which runs next week in Wilmington, NC, and am very much looking forward to it. The format will be a bit different this time, where I’ll be providing an update on the AI landscape, along with specific use cases for customer service - an area where they definitely lag. To make things even more interesting, my session will also include a fireside chat with Cognigy, where they’ll share real-world successes in this space.
I’ll share what I can on social while there, but follow-on takeaways will be coming for sure. Until then, to get a flavor for this event, here’s my blog post with some highlights from last year’s conference.
There was no travel during July, but I kept busy on many fronts, including writing. As per below, I only had two articles with my byline, but three others were published last month that I wrote, but sans my byline. You might be surprised by the variety of ways we indie analysts ply our trade - and I’d be happy to tell you more about that any time!
No Jitter - my latest article, AI in the Enterprise - Are We Missing the Best Use Case of All?, July 17
Aizan Blog - my latest guest post: Communications Tech Events to Attend - an Analyst’s Take, June 28 (did not run in time to be included in my June writing roundup)
I recently authored a white paper for NICE about digital self-service, and in support of that, there’s a webinar coming on Aug. 8. I’ll be presenting along with Elizabeth Tobey, sharing highlights from the paper, along with how contact center leaders should be thinking about how AI is transforming what’s possible now with self-service. Details are here, and I hope you can join us.
More writing and less spoken word for June - four public writeups, and all were reviews of recent industry events.
Zoom Perspectives - Five Takeaways, June 5, BCStrategies
Verint Analyst Days - Four Takeaways, June 10, BCStrategies
Zoholics 2024: How the Company Models a Different Path to Success, June 21, No Jitter
NICE Interactions 2024: Just CX It - Executing on the Vision, June 21, BCStrategies
Am finally back to travel for industry events. Since the end of February, Enterprise Connect has been the only business travel for me, but that’s about to change. I was recuperating from foot surgery all of April, and had to pass on five events to manage that. The last two weeks, I was in Israel on a personal trip, but now it’s time to get back to events.
Starting today, I’m flying to NYC for Zoom Perspectives, then to Dallas on Wednesday for Verint Analyst Day. It’s way less flying than Israel, and a lot easier with time zone changes. I’ll be posting on LinkedIn as time allows, and soon after will write up my takeaways.
I may be recovering from foot surgery, but I’ve got plenty of things on the go, including a new webinar. This one is with Enghouse Interactive, and it will be live on April 30 at 10am ET. I’ll be presenting about the current state of things with contact centers, especially those who have not yet made any moves to the cloud.
A lot of education is still needed, and once the benefits are understood, it’s a much easier decision to make. I hope you can join us, and here’s the registration page.
Aside from traveling to industry and vendor events, I work with many vendors to provide various forms of thought leadership and go to market support - that’s mainly how I make my living.
NICE is one of those vendors, and my latest work with them is a white paper, which was recently published. I don’t have the exact date, but was likely around late March. AI is transforming the contact center space in many ways, and there is no shortage of angles to explore.
For this white paper, the focus is on supervisors, a role that tends to be in the shadows when considering use cases for AI. Well, it turns out this is a really important use case, and to better learn why, I hope you give this a read. As with most white papers, registration is required on the vendor’s website - it just takes a moment, and follow-on comments are welcome, as always.
J Arnold & Associates is an Independent Technology Research and Analyst, helping businesses understand the strategic value of communications technology as they adapt to the digital transformation of work
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